Hugh Howey is the New York Times best-selling author of the books Wool, Sand, and Beacon 23. As a self-published artist, Howey has developed authentic, direct, and lasting dialogue with his fans that has changed the course of his work. He believes that fan fiction and the malleability of stories are the purest form of storytelling, as traditional oral storytelling relied heavily on audience participation. He holds that social media has allowed an audience of millions to become a small village again.

Prior to his career as a writer, Howey spent a decade captaining yachts. He now combines his love of sailing with his love of writing by penning novels from the deck of his catamaran, which he is sailing around the world.

Extending stories beyond the page and allowing audiences to be part of the storytelling process have been integral to storytelling since its origins. Hugh Howey, the New York Times best-selling, self-published author of Wool, Sand, and Beacon 23Ñand one of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing's first authors to garner immense success through the self-publishing platformÑhas been exploring how to make storytelling more participatory in the digital age. One way that he has found connection with his readers is by encouraging them to expand on his stories' plots, themes, and character development by creating their own fan fiction around them. The types of deeper, more meaningful connections that have resulted from this collaboration have been central to the stories Howey has crafted. Technology and social media have also allowed him to have more meaningful, sometimes one-on-one interactions with his readers_some of whom have gone on to become full-time writers themselves. Because of these new opportunities, Howey truly believes we are living in a golden age of literature in which the doors have been opened for a wider variety of voices to be heard.